Forward March
by Dora Liir-Took
Summary: Stuck inside all day and all night, Sirius has no choice but to live vicariously through someone else's love life.  He's not stupid either.  When Remus returns one night from a Christmas party at the Tonks' house, Sirius knows love when he sees it.


Overall it was a lovely holiday. Kreacher was still being himself but at least he stayed out of most people's way. It was as if the Christmas spirit was a stench he couldn't stand. At one point, Molly entered the living room, carrying a tray of freshly made ginger biscuits only to have Kreacher run frantically the other way and up the stairs as if terrified by the thought of sweets.

Most people assumed that the house elf had become somewhat nocturnal and roamed about at night, doing his dirty work. However it was nearly two in the morning and Sirius had seen no sign of him. Sirius wasn't worried nor was he upset by this fact. He wasn't wide awake, sitting on a moth eaten couch with his leg jiggling in anticipation (and high levels of caffeine) to hear any of Kreacher's moronic and disillusioned stories.

Sirius was waiting for a far more interesting story.

And at exactly one past two in the morning, the door opened and a figure shakily entered the Black house. The stranger shook the snow off his cloak and then pulled it off, throwing in upon a hook on the wall. He was rubbing his hands together and attempting to create some kind of warmth when Sirius realized he couldn't wait anymore and pulled out his wand, conjured some light and said slyly, "So…how did it go?"

The reaction was perfect. Remus had the look of a deer caught in headlights. He jumped and froze, staring at Sirius' face and blinking a few times as his eyes got used to the sudden light.

"You're…you're up…"

"Well spotted," Sirius had to use every bit of control not to laugh at his friend's face. He took a breath and repeated himself calmly, "So…how did it go?"

Remus' eyes hit the floor and he went back to rubbing his hands together, "You stayed up all this time just to ask me how it went?"

"Well, it's a milestone of an occasion. Things like this don't happen every day. Well, not for you at least, Moony. So…_how_ did it go?"

"It was fun," Remus finally said after a few nervous bounces on the balls of his feet, "It was a lot of fun. I'm glad I went."

"You're glad I told you to go you mean."

"I'm glad I went."

Had he said good night at that moment, he could have escaped Sirius' questions but the fact of the matter is both men knew that there was a part of Remus (however small) that wanted to talk about what had happened that night. That part of him left him standing there, staring at the floor and waiting for Sirius to continue asking questions.

"And…? What happened? What did you do?"

"Well, we had dinner," Remus went on, "Kingsley was there. Alastor didn't show up. I didn't expect him to but Andromeda was rather upset and-"

"Andromeda?" Sirius let out a laugh that sounded somewhat like a bark, "You're on a fist name basis with the parents?"

"Oh, shut up."

Sirius opened his mouth to say something and then closed it, sat back and said, "I'm sorry. Continue. You had dinner. What did you have for dinner? Who did you sit next to?"

Remus didn't have to answer that; Sirius already knew who he had sat next to so he merely added, "Did she ask you to sit next to her or did you just sit down next to her?"

Even in the dim glow of a lumos charm, Sirius could make out that his friend was turning a beet red color he had not donned in ten years probably. This was all too funny and Sirius had to continue on, "What was she wearing tonight? A pretty dress I bet. What color was her hair? Did you meet the muggle cousins?"

Although thoroughly uncomfortable, Remus spat out, "She was wearing a red dress. Yes, she did look very pretty. Her hair was black because, yes, the muggle cousins were there and her mother didn't want her scaring the cousins with any odd colors. I didn't talk much with the cousins because they seemed utterly terrified to be in the same room as us and-"

"Did you kiss her?"

Remus stopped, "What?"

"Did you kiss her?" Sirius asked calmly, "Just answer me that, Moony, and I'll stop asking. Did you kiss her?"

Remus looked as if he didn't under English.

"Did you _kiss_ her?" Sirius repeated and then proceeded to make a hideous kissy face as if explaining to a child what exactly kissing was. When he was done, he let out another bark like laugh, "Just tell me if you did. I'll let it go at that. You had a lovely time. Okay. But did you kiss the girl? I'm assuming you didn't…"

But Remus still looked horribly blank as if trying to think quickly but the brain just refused to work. Having nothing to say, he chose flight over fight and walked towards the kitchen without another word.

Dumbfounded, it took Sirius a beat or two to realize what had just happened but he soon bolted from the couch and ran after Remus shouting, "What? You didn't? Did you? You have to tell me these things! I kiss and told all the time with you and James! What the bloody hell did you do?"

They were now in the kitchen, separated by the long, wooden table. Sirius was jumping up and down as though he had to use the bathroom badly but took great care to say each word, "Did. You. Kiss. Her."

Remus' eyes were on the floor once again but there was the tiniest of a smirk on his face. He sighed, "Possibly."

And with that, Sirius was dancing around the kitchen as if Christmas had come early and singing some made up song that involved the words "Moony", "Tonks" and "snogging".

"There is a god!" he finished at last, "It only took you, what? Thirty-four years, Remus, huh? Finally! A bit of snogging! Thank the good Lord!" he then proceeded to fake cry, "Prongs would be so proud. They grow up so fast, don't they?"

Attempting to control Sirius' outburst was fruitless as Remus soon found out and could only silence the maniac by lovingly throwing a ceramic mug at him that bounced off of Sirius' boney chest, hit the floor and shattered.

"Reparo," Remus laughed out the spell but rolled his eyes at Sirius who got solemn suddenly.

"So, what happened? How did it go?"he asked, as if the issue was of huge importance and both the men's lives depending on the answer.

"What do you mean?"

"Where were you? Were you in the kitchen? Were you out on the stoop? Were you in her bedroom?"

"Sirius-"

"I'm curious!"

That small part of Remus glued him to the kitchen floor and allowed him to saying freely, "We went for a walk."

This threw Sirius into a fit of squeals, "Oh, I can picture it. The deserted streets. The snow covered houses. And then as if on cue, the snow begins to fall. How romantic."

A large part of Remus considered throwing a few more coffee mugs at Sirius. He shook his head and continued on, "Well, no. I mean we went for a walk after dinner and talked about things. Not the Order…just…"

"Personal things?"

Not pausing to even take that comment in, Remus went on, "And I walked her back to her house because it was really pretty late and Andromeda and Ted were probably wondering where she was. So I walk her back to her front door and we're standing there and I tell her 'Happy Christmas' and she tells me 'Happy Christmas' and then I just sort of bent down and…and pecked her…on the cheek."

Sirius was silent.

"On the cheek?" he finally asked.

"Yes."

"On the _cheek_? As in, not the lips?"

"Right."

There was another pause before Sirius broke into another fit. This time, though, he was laughing harder than he had ever laughed before. He was actually on the floor at one point, holding onto his stomach as he rolled about in fits of hysteria. He picked himself up off the floor and wiped a tear away from his eyes but could not contain the laughter.

At a loss, Remus finally asked, "What?"

It took a bit for Sirius to pull in enough air to string words together but when he did he said, "On the _cheek_?" before falling apart again.

"I just…well, what's so wrong with that?"

Another minute or so went by before Sirius could contain himself, "You…don't…" he took in a deep breath, "You don't kiss a girl on the cheek! That's mental!"

"What's wrong with that?"

"That's a kiss you give your sister! That's a 'Hi, you're a girl and you're neat' kind of a kiss not a 'Hi, I think you're wonderful and want to snog you and have lots of babies with you' kind of a kiss!" The tears were streaming down his face now and he attempted wiped them all away with the back of his sleeve, "Oh for the love of God, Remus…"

"I… well, I didn't want to be-"

"Forward?" Sirius attempted to pick himself up but found it just as suitable to be on the floor, "That poor girl. That poor, poor, poor girl. She probably was banking on you kissing her tonight-"

"But I did kiss her-"

"On the cheek! That doesn't count!"

Once again, Remus had gone a bright red. His eyes dropped and he shook his head, "I didn't want to be…I don't know…I just…I mean…it's not as if it can happen anyway." He added the last part in almost a whisper, hoping Sirius wouldn't hear.

And Sirius didn't hear. He was too busy shaking all the laughter out him. Feeling so outrageously happy, he knew nothing else to do but to summon a bottle of fire whiskey and toast his good friend.

"To you and Tonks, Moony," he laughed, "Here's to hoping she's forward enough for the two of you!"

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End file.
